Slow Dancing In a Burning Room
by R. M. Avalon
Summary: Kagome and Sesshomaru meet again after the end; things have not turned out the way that either one of them expected them to. Slight AU.
1. Slow Dancing In a Burning Room

A/N: First, it's like… ninety-nine percent true to the story except for the small fact that I'm ignoring the last chapter where Rumiko Takahashi decided to do what JK Rowling did with Harry Potter and gave everyone a SUPER HAPPY ENDING. Second, this story got its title from a John Mayer song by the same name and I listened to it on repeat as I wrote this. There's no real connection between the song and the story, but the title fit well and the song is heartbreakingly beautiful. GO LISTEN TO IT.

Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I own Slow Dancing In a Burning Room.

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Slow Dancing In a Burning Room

He found her sitting in the corner of the old well shrine, sobbing her eyes out. He didn't ask why she was crying and she didn't ask who he was, though he looked very different now.

For her it had only been a year since she saw him but for him it had been almost five centuries. She sat in the dirt; her back against the wall of the shrine, with her knees drawn up to her chest and her face burried in her crossed arms, which rested on them. Her inky black hair tumbled across her shoulders, further obscuring her face. She was dressed in a pair of grey slacks and a plum colored blouse; she had not bothered to change out of her work clothes before coming to the shrine that evening.

For a few minutes there was silence between the two beings in the shrine, then without raising her eyes, she asked: "How did you know where to find me?"

"He told me where to find this place." He replied, after a while.

"Why did you come?"

"I did not intend to." He sat on the lip of the well, and leaned forward, propping his elbows on his thighs. Looking down at her, he was struck by how fragile she seemed; dejected and crying, hunched against the wall, she seemed impossibly small and weak. If it hadn't been for her scent, he would not have believed that she was the same girl who had fought both against and with him on relatively equal footing so many times before. He frowned down at her.

_This is wrong, _he though, _she is not supposed to be like this._

He was silent for a while and she asked derisively: "If you didn't intend to come, then why did you? Did you suddenly decide that you missed me?"

"No as such, no." He said simply. "But you are the only person who remembers that time, besides myself. I have been without… companionship of any substance for quite some years now. Immortality in such a state has grown tiresome."

At that she finally looked up.

"So," she said, wistfully, "everyone is gone and you sought me out because you wanted to talk about the old days?"

"Hn." He regarded her with hard, narrowed golden eyes.

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes, smearing her mascara. "You know, I never understood it when Inuyasha said that, and I don't understand it when you say it either."

"It means that perhaps I would not… be adverse to speaking with you for a while." He stood and walked towards her, "But I will not do it here; this shrine smells of dust. Come."

He held out his hand to her, she tentatively reached out and took it and he helped her to her feet. She looked him up and down, critically. He was still just as tall and lean as he had been in the past, but he had no markings and his long hair was black now. He wore a black business suit that was perfectly tailored to him and the easy way he moved told her that he was more than comfortable in it.

"You're different." She told him, as she brushed herself off, "And not just physically."

"Five hundred years is a long time, Kagome, even for an immortal such as myself." She was a little surprised that he used her name; she thought that it might have been the first time that he had done so. He followed her up the steps, to the door of the shrine. "And my true appearance would cause quite a stir in this age."

The corner of her lip quirked upwards as she pictured him walking through the crowded streets of downtown Tokyo dressed in his armor, with his fur pelt draped across one shoulder. "I can imagine."

Together they crossed the yard from the well shrine to her family's house. The daylight was dying at this point, the sun sinking low into the west, and Kagome shivered in the cooling air.

"How did you know that I would be here today?" She asked him, "I'm not here that often any more."

He looked away from her for a while, watching the sunset. "I had a notion that you might come here today." His gaze slid back over to her. "It's the anniversary of _that_ day, after all."

He saw her face tighten again, and felt something stirring in the pit of his stomach. He might have called it sympathy, if he had been capable of feeling any such thing. "That day" was the day that they had defeated Naraku and completed the Shikon Jewel. And the day that Kagome had suddenly and without any warning, been thrown forwards in time, never to return to the Sengoku Jidai.

"You know I'm not always like this," she said, "I just came here tonight to… I guess mourn is the right word."

He nodded his head once, but said nothing in response.

They came to the house and she slid the door open. Kagome's mother stood by the stove, stirring a pot and talking on the phone. She told the person on the other end that she would talk to them later and hung it up, when the two of them came in the kitchen.

"I see you found her." Mrs. Higurashi said smiling brightly, though her eyes were worried as they observed her daughter.

"Yes." He replied.

"You know, if you hadn't known about Kagome's history with that well, I never would have believed that you were Inuyasha-kun's brother. You two really look nothing alike." She told him, as she stirred the pot. "I'm making oden, would you like to join us for supper?"

"Thank you, mama, but I actually have a lot that I want to talk to Sesshomaru about. Maybe he can come by another time." She glanced at him, but the youkai lord was impassive as always. "I'll see you later this week, ok?"

She hugged her mother and then they bid her farewell. Kagome stopped briefly in the hall to grab her coat and purse, which she had left hanging by the front door, then the two figured walked back out into the gathering darkness.

"Sorry if you wanted to eat here, I just couldn't do it tonight. My mother would have too many questions." She said as they walked together down the long stairs to the street below.

"I do not care if we eat here or not." He said by way of accepting her apology. "However if you are hungry, I can take you somewhere."

"I guess I could eat something." She told him as they approached his car, which was sleek and black, and reeked of money.

"Get in." He told her, opening the door for her, in an uncharacteristic display of chivalry. She acquiesced silently and climbed into the passenger seat. He shut the door and came around to the other side. Once he was inside the car with her, his presence was even more intense and it made her heart race and her chest tight; she hadn't been around this much undiluted power in years. He glanced at her, as if he could sense her reaction- chances were that he actually could, he was a dog youkai, after all- but said nothing.

The engine started with a roar and they peeled away from the curb and out into traffic.

_This is unreal_, she thought. Less than an hour before, she had been preparing herself for an evening of silent mourning for the friends separated from her by so many years of history, and she had suddenly found herself confronted by- if not one of said friends, then someone close enough.

Kagome stared out the window, watching the city lights zip by. Her breath fogged the glass slightly every time she exhaled, obscuring her view for a few seconds before it receded. She could see Sesshomaru reflected in the glass and she studied his reflection for a few minutes, trying to reconcile his new appearance with the man she had known.

"Let me see you." She said suddenly.

"You can see me, miko." He told her, as he slid the car across two lanes of traffic with barely a thought. "Unless you have gone blind in the last few minutes."

She frowned at him. "You know what I mean. Let me see you without your glamour."

"Do you need to prove to yourself that I'm really me?" His lip twitched as he half-smirked at her.

"Yes."

His smirk vanished and with it, his glamour. He was exactly as she remembered him: long white hair, red stripes on his cheeks, purple crescent moon on his forehead, and the hands that gripped the steering wheel were tipped with claws. He looked _wrong_ in a business suit. She was suddenly struck with a pang of something that could only be called longing or homesickness that she turned away and looked out the window at the passing traffic.

"You can go back now." She told him, quietly.

"Am I so displeasing to look at in my regular form?" She could hear the frown in his voice, though whether it was from disappointment or confusion, she did not know.

"No." She told him, truthfully. "But it is hard for me to see you like that without seeing…"

Inuyasha's name hung unspoken in the air between them and suddenly Kagome wished that she had never asked him to drop the illusion.

They were silent for the rest of the drive.

The restaurant that he took her too was one of the fancier new ones in the heart of the city. It was the kind of place that she would never have considered going to on her own. It was the type of the place with a live jazz band and no prices listed on the menu, sending the message _if you have to ask what it costs, you can't afford it_.

Sesshomaru had his own table there.

The hostess led them to their table then bowed and left them just in time for a waiter to come over bearing a bottle of wine.

"Your usual, sir?" The man asked, holding out the bottle for his inspection.

"Do you care for wine?" Sesshomaru asked her.

"I, um, yes. Thank you." She blinked at him, slightly overwhelmed. He gestured to the waiter and the man filled their glasses then backed away to give them a few minutes to look at the menu.

"You must come here often." She looked at him over the top of her menu.

"Hn. I know the owner." He didn't raise his head from his menu.

She took her glass and sipped the red wine in her glass. It was slightly dry, with a hint of bitter sweetness.

They didn't speak again until after the waiter had come back to take their orders, then returned a second time to bring their food. She ate reflexively, tasting nothing. As she ate, Kagome let her eyes wander around the restaurant taking in the subtle elegance of the place. She watched several couples out on he small dance floor, moving together in the low light, swaying to the beat of the music.

"So." She began at length, "You are the only one left?"

"I suppose." His golden eyes gleamed in the light of the candle on their table. "Or at least the only one who was directly involved with the Naraku incident. Nothing large has happened in the youkai world since then, in fact it has been quietly sliding out of existence."

"What… what happened to everyone?" She asked quietly. Her hands gripped the napkin on her lap so tightly that he knuckles turned white.

"Are you sure you really want to know?" He had been expecting the question, after all that was part of the reason that Inuyasha had asked him to seek her out; he wanted to make sure that she knew what had happened after she left, but now that she had asked, he felt uncertain about how to go about answering it.

"I… yes. I need to know." She looked at him, and though her eyes were sad, there was certainty in their blue depths.

"The monk and the slayer were married and had many children, and grandchildren. They died when they were very old." He spoke in a monotone, beginning with the easiest story, for there was no great sadness in it. "Rin remained with the old miko from Edo, she became a healer, and she lived there until she died." He felt the old sting of pain in the vicinity of his chest, when he spoke about Rin; it had been long enough that he acknowledged that he had held a certain amount of affection for her and he still missed her presence on occasion.

"The fox remained in the village for a while, but he left around the time of Rin's death and I have since heard nothing of him."

The light of hope flared briefly in Kagome's eyes. "So Shippo could be alive?" She asked.

"It is highly improbable." He said, telling himself that he did not feel guilty for putting that light in her eyes out. It would do her no good to carry around that kind of futile hope. Had the kitsune survived he would have, without a doubt contacted Sesshomaru; as the most well-connected and influential youkai in the city, it was only natural for the few remaining youkai to gravitate toward him for protection.

"Jaken lived on for another fifty or so years." Sesshomaru frowned; there was one last person and this one he did not want to talk about.

"And… Inuyasha?" Her voice broke slightly as she said his name.

"My brother lived for another three hundred years. He died in his sleep." He said in a low voice. There was no love lost between the brothers, however towards the end of Inuyasha's time, the animosity between then had diminished somewhat.

"Did he ever… meet anyone else?" A tear rolled down her cheek.

"… he did." Sesshomaru said quietly. She suddenly felt slightly sick and the food she had consumed sat heavily in her stomach.

_You're being stupid_, she told herself, _there was no reason for him to wait for you for hundreds of years._

"They were mated, truly mated. He tied their lives together. She was killed by a rogue demon and he followed her shortly." He concluded.

"Was… was he happy? Did he love her?" She choked out.

"I would assume so." Sesshomaru did not like where this conversation was going and he wanted very badly to _not_ be having it any more. Talking about that time brought forth feelings that he had no name for and which made him distinctly uncomfortable. Strangely enough, it was still something of a relief to be talking about it again; he had been carrying the weight of that portion of history inside of himself for so long.

"He never forgot you." He said. "His last request was that I find you."

"And you? What have you been doing, through all this time?" She asked him.

"I have been… building an empire." He said slowly, "Taisho Corp."

She almost smiled at that; of course Sesshomaru was behind the largest technology development company in all of Japan. But thinking of how long it had taken him to build his "empire" only brought home exactly how large the yawning gap of history between her and her old friends truly was.

Kagome squeezed her eyes shut. In her minds eye she watched all of her "what if's" that involved her managing to re-open the well and go back to the Sengoku Jidai dissolve, leaving her bereft and feeling more hopeless than ever. But at the same time, she felt an odd relief sweep through her, like an old ound that had refused to heal was begingin to close.

She opened her eyes to see Sesshomaru watching her from across the table.

"Are you alright?" He asked, though she had a feeling that he was asking as a formality more than because he really cared.

"Not really, but I will be." _I hope_."How about you? Are you alright?"

"I am... surviving." He told her, eyes flickering briefly with an unnameable emotion.

She looked at the happy couples on the dance floor again. Suddenly she didn't want to be sitting any more. She stood.

"Dance with me."

Sesshomaru blinked at her, as if trying to decide if she had lost her mind. "Why?"

"Just because." She held out her hand to him, just as he had done for her earlier. He stared at it for a few seconds before he took it in his and stood. She led him through the tables, to the dance floor and he swept her into his arms as the band started up a slow melody.

She was surprisingly at ease with him, though his posture was as stiff and tense as ever. They were closer now than they had ever been before and when she breathed in, the scent of the forest and fresh air filled her nose. She closed her eyes and tentatively leaned her head against his chest. His heartbeat was steady next to her ear. After a few minutes, she felt him relax slightly.

They swayed together on the floor; neither one was exactly happy to be there, but they both felt the pull of the strange kinship that they suddenly shared. The most powerful miko that the world had ever seen and the warlord of an ancient youkai kingdom danced together in a restaurant set in the heart of a world that did not really need either one of them for who they truly were.

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This is the first story that I have ever written for this fandom and pairing. Once, a long time ago, I tried to write an Inuyasha fic, but I was thirteen years old and so by nature of that alone, it sucked and never got past chapter one.

As far as this story goes, there are two things that could happen. First, I could leave this as a one-shot and just walk away or second, I could continue this. There is more to this story, however the ideas that I have for this fic could also work with another fic that I have brewing. So the choice is yours! Let me hear your thoughts! Also please tell me what you think about their personalities. I've never written either one before and I want to know how I did with Sesshomaru. He's slightly OOC (but I mean, come on- he's had 500 years to mellow a little bit), but I want to make sure it's not too bad.

Thank you for your love and support,

R.M. Avalon


	2. A Long December

A Long December

The Counting Crows song of the same name, which I listened to on repeat as I worked on this, inspired this second half of the story. I hope you enjoy the continuation of Slow Dancing in a Burning Room and that it lives up to your expectations.

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They sat, side by side in silence, watching the sunrise over the city. Kagome wasn't quite sure how they had ended up on the balcony, which was attached to his bedroom, that morning. He lived slightly outside Tokyo and the mansion that he occupied was set high upon a hill, above the noise and the smog.

Most of the night before was a blur. All she really knew was that the anniversary of _that _day had rolled around again and she had resigned herself to spending the evening in a deep depression as soon as her workday ended. Then _he_ had showed up at her family's shrine.

She'd never thought that she would see Sesshomaru again, after all, his appearance in her time meant that he had lived through nearly five hundred years since the last time he had seen her. He had surprised her with how much he had changed; instead of scorning her as he would have done before, he had pulled her out of her mourning and given her the company that she so desperately needed at that moment. And he had taken her to dinner. And danced with her. And somewhere within the space of that one evening she had become aware of exactly how deep the yawning fissure in her heart actually went and of how little she had really been doing to deal with it.

For two years she had put her whole life on hold while she sat and dreamed of possibilities that, in reality, could almost certainly never come to pass.

_I'd become so tired of living like this and I never even realized it._ She wrapped the soft, black blanket that was draped over her shoulders, tighter around her body to stave off the chill of the winter morning around them. Her breath fogged in the air as she sighed.

"What's troubling you?" Sesshomaru asked, taking his eyes off the sky to turn them on her. The frosty wind caught his hair, which was white now- at some point he had dropped the glamour- and blew it around like strands of silver light in the pale glow of the early morning sun.

"I just… I'm so drained you know? I feel empty." Her eyes were tired and slightly sad.

"It will get better." He told her as he raised a hand to brush his long hair back behind his head.

"I know." Kagome drew her knees up to her chest so that the blanket covered her legs and feet too. "I just wish that it was ok now."

He said nothing, but she hadn't really expected him to. Emotions never really had been Sesshomaru's forte and she hadn't expected that to change, even over the course of five centuries. The sun rose steadily higher in the sky as they sat quietly.

Her mind began to drift and she started trying to piece together the memories from the night before. The dance, which had started out very stiff and awkward had become comfortable after a while and she had clung to that comfort desperately; it was the first time that she had felt something other than a dull aching in her heart in two years. They were the last couple to leave the dance floor when the band finally stopped playing.

They had looked at each other and an unspoken agreement had passed between the two of them; neither one of them was ready to give up what the presence of the other was bringing to them. So instead of dropping her off at the shrine, he had taken her to his home.

Sesshomaru glanced at her out of the corner of his eye; even though she still looked tired, it was no longer the deep exhaustion, which had shrouded her aura the evening before.

The wind picked up again and Kagome moved around on the bench, trying to shield her body from the gust. She bumped up against Sesshomaru and she opened her mouth to apologize, but he spoke before she could.

"Are you cold?"

"A little." She said.

"We can go indoors if you wish." He had no desire to go back inside his home at that moment, but the idea of her discomfort was unpleasant to him.

"I want to finish watching the sunrise." The sky was streaked with pink and gold and the darkness of the night was receding.

He moved again and for a minute she thought that he was going to get up, but instead he draped his arm over the back of the bench causing her to fall against him with a squeak.

"What are you doing?" She blinked up at him.

"You are my guest here; it would be impolite for me to allow you to remain uncomfortable. And I am not particularly incline to go looking for another blanket."

She silently arranged herself into a more comfortable position next to him and she felt the comfort that came from his presence seeping into her fragile heart.

If someone had told her two years before that she would be as good as snuggling with Sesshomaru, she would not have know whether to laugh or be worried that they were suffering from some form of psychosis. Yet, there she was. She leaned her head against his chest and let out another sigh.

There was something strangely right about having Kagome pressed against his side, Sesshomaru noted, her shoulders fit perfectly underneath his arm and her head rested just below his chin. He had never been comfortable with touching, but oddly enough he did not find contact with her to be unpleasant at all.

Kagome could remember sitting with him in silence beside a fireplace, watching as the greedy flames devoured the logs. They had soaked up each other's presence, simply content to know that they were no longer alone. At some point she had drifted off, lulled by the soft crackling of the fire and the deep relaxation that had stolen over her as the hours passed.

The sun climbed higher over the city skyline below, causing the buildings to cast long shadows across the land.

She had fallen asleep on his couch sometime after two AM and he had covered her in one of the blankets from his closet. She looked even smaller and more fragile in sleep, but bathed in the fire's orange light, she also looked warm and alive; much more like the girl that he had known so very many years before. Soon after she had gone to sleep, he himself had dozed off in the armchair that sat beside the fireplace.

_It is strange,_ Sesshomaru mused, _to think that this is how things have turned out._

He absentmindedly toyed with a loose curl of her hair, which had fallen between his fingers. It was soft as silk and extremely pleasing to the touch.

Suddenly Kagome laughed and he could feel the sound vibrate through his body. "This is so odd."

"Indeed." He responded with a sigh.

"But it's nice." She said softly, almost shyly. She looked up at him, her cheek still pressed against his chest.

"It is." His reply was quiet but it sent a pulse of warmth through her heart and she felt the fissure close, just a bit.

"You know," she began, "It's almost New Years."

That caught him by surprise. Somehow time had slipped away from him and he had not realized that the year was almost over; after a while time just seemed to run together for him.

"I've heard that in American they have a tradition where you make a resolution at the start of the new year. Something that you want to change or do differently than you did the year before." The sky was bursting with color and the sun was blinding as it cleared the skyline and continued ever higher. "I think… my resolution will be to let go. It is well past time for that."

She turned to him again, unable to continue staring at the sky. "What about you?"

He was silent for a long while and she began to fiddle nervously with the edge of the blanket, afraid that he through her idea was stupid.

"I think it is time for me to do the same." His eyes shone, catching the sun's rays in their golden depths.

She nodded against his chest. There was nothing left for either one of them in the past and no point in dwelling on it any longer. And now they had a reason to look towards the future.

They had woken around the same time that morning, when dawn was still a short ways off. The two of them had exchanged no words, but no words had been needed. Just as they had soundlessly understood each other's behavior the night before, they were still perfectly in tune. They had made their way out to the balcony and quietly situated themselves on the bench. It was unexplainable, but they were both driven by the need to see the sun come up that morning, to watch the birth of the new day.

As the sun finally reached the open sky and the warm light spilled out over the land below, Kagome closed her eyes and breathed in. The air up here was fresh and clean and the world was quiet around them. She snuggled a bit close to Sesshomaru and his arm tightened around her shoulders. A tiny smile began to creep across her face; at that moment she knew that at some point in the not too distant future, that things would really be okay.

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Happy New Years, folks! I am thrilled an honored that so many of you liked this story enough to comment on it and add it to your favorites. I hope that this new year brings you everything you desire and more!

Please read and review; your reviews inspire me and make me want to write more!

Love,

R.M. Avalon


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